Toyota could have posted even higher sales of those truck models if the company wasn’t stymied by lean inventories, which is prompting Toyota to adjust its production mix ahead of the summer selling season, said Bill Fay, Toyota Division general manager.

“Although we had a great light-truck sales month, we probably ran a little bit tight on inventory on a few products there which probably had some impact,” Fay said during a conference call. “We’ve gone out and looked at the next three to six months and are working with our manufacturing side to kind of tweak that production mix and fill in that balance so we’ve got some more light trucks to sell over the next couple of months.”

‘Toyota time’

Toyota will kick off its “Toyota Time” national advertising campaign this month, its second national campaign of the year, with low interest rate and lease deals that vary by region on a variety of nameplates, Fay said. The Camry midsize sedan and Prius hybrid will be added to its current crop of vehicles carrying 0 percent financing for 60 months, Fay said.

Lexus sold 25,876 units last month, up 12 percent. Year-to-date Lexus deliveries are up 17 percent to 103,056, putting it in third place in the luxury sales race behind leader Mercedes-Benz and BMW in second place through the first four months of 2015.

The new NX small crossover drove a 24 percent jump in light truck sales by adding 3,421 units of incremental volume to the luxury division’s tally. The NX helped offset a 16 percent drop in Lexus’ RX crossover demand, the brand’s top-selling model, yet it also contributed to the RX’s decline.

“We have seen some impact by NX, a little bit of cannibalization,” Jeff Bracken, general manager of the Lexus Division, said on a conference call.

Bracken said Lexus also moved advertising dollars away from the RX to support IS and GS sedan sales, and early April RX demand was limited by the debut of the redesigned RX crossover at the New York auto show.

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